compensation. It was stated by the great minister to whom I have so
often had occasion to allude, than whom no one was more intimately
conversant with the commercial system of this country, that it had been
our general practice to make from time to time such regulations in the
different branches of our commerce, as considerations of policy or
finance might require; and excepting cases in which the circumstances
had been peculiar, it had not been usual to grant compensation to those
who might suffer from the change. The abolition of the Slave Trade ought
therefore to be regarded as one of the contingencies which are foreseen
and understood in general, though not in the particular form and
instance in which they may happen; one of those accidents to which
persons who engage in commercial or any other speculations render
themselves liable, relying only on the wisdom and justice of the
legislature, that, in administering its important trust of watching over
the general welfare of the community, it will, as far as possible,
consult also the advantage of every particular class, and not lightly
sacrifice any individual interests.
The truth of this doctrine was completely established by the great man
above referred to, who contended, founding his arguments on general
reasoning, and confirming them by a reference to particular statutes,
that Parliament had at no time given any pledge that the Slave Trade
should be continued, or that the losses incurred in consequence of its
suppression, had any losses been likely to take place, should be made
good by the public.
Still as it might seem hard, if not absolutely unjust, that one set of
men should be the sufferers, when the crime, though committed chiefly
for their benefit, was one in which others had participated with them,
it was declared by the chancellor of the exchequer, that one class of
persons, those alone who might otherwise with reason complain of hard
measure, if not of unjust treatment, should receive compensation on any
fair case of injury being made out to the satisfaction of impartial
commissioners. This was the class of persons who had bought lots of
uncultivated land of Government, in the ceded or any other islands. It
might be presumed, that they had engaged in the speculation, with
expectations of being able to bring them into cultivation by imported
Africans; and therefore if they had performed their share of the
conditions of the purchase, they were entitled to require the state to
perform its share also, or to pay them an equivalent.
But when the colonial system, as now administered, except perhaps in
some particular cases, has not only been injurious to the Slaves, but on
the long run to the master also; when it is at length declared by a very
intelligent West Indian, that the colonists, by adopting those reforms
for which justice and humanity should alone furnish sufficient motives,
will ultimately derive the most substantial benefits, though possibly
they may suffer some temporary inconveniency; when, at the same time,
the prejudices against these reforms are so powerful, that a direct,
palpable, and valuable interest alone, will probably be adequate to
overcome their effect; in such circumstances as these, it is undeniably
obvious, that to hold forth an offer of compensation to all, who, after
the abolition, should allege that they had suffered from that measure,
or who should even furnish plausible proof that it had been injurious to
their interests, would not only be to subject ourselves to immeasurable
and most inequitable claims, but would be to interpose an insurmountable
obstacle in the way of all reforms of the West Indian system, or, to
speak more correctly, it would be to give a premium on the continuance
and even extension of the old abuses. [Sidenote: and on grounds of
religion.] It is, however, most of all astonishing, that our opponents
attempt to vindicate the Slave Trade on grounds of religion also. The
only argument which they urge with the slightest colour of reason is,
that slavery was allowed under the Jewish dispensation. The Jews were
exalted by the express designation of heaven to a state of eminence
above the strangers who sojourned among them, and the heathen who dwelt
around them, from either of whom, as a mark of their own dominion, God,
who has a right to assign to all his creatures their several places in
the scale of being, allowed them to take bondmen and bondwomen, treating
them, however, with kindness, remembering their own feelings when they
were slaves in Egypt, and admitting them to the chief national
privileges, to the circumcision, to the passover, and other solemn
feasts, and thus instructing them in the true religion. Besides this,
the slaves were to be set free at the year of Jubilee, or every fiftieth
year, a command which was alone sufficient to prevent their accumulating
in any great number.
But they who thus urge on us the Divine toleration of slavery under the
Jewish Theocracy, should remember that the Jews themselves were
expressly commanded not to retain any of _their own nation_, any of
their _brethren_ in slavery, except as a punishment, or by their own
consent; and even these were to be set free on the return of the
sabbatical, or the seventh year. Inasmuch therefore, as we are
repeatedly and expressly told that Christ has done away all distinctions
of nations, and made all mankind one great family, all our fellow
creatures are now our brethren; and therefore the very principles and
spirit of the Jewish law itself would forbid our keeping the Africans,
any more than our own fellow subjects, in a state of slavery. But even
supposing, contrary to the fact, that our opponents had succeeded in
proving that the Slave Trade was not contrary to the Jewish law, this
would only prove that they would be entitled to carry it on if they were
Jews, and could, like the Jews, produce satisfactory proof that they
were the chosen people of God. But really it would be consuming your
time to no purpose, to enter into a formal proof, that fraud, rapine,
and cruelty, as contrary to that religion, which commands us to love our
neighbour as ourselves, and to do to others as we would have them do to
us. I cannot persuade myself that our opponents are serious in using
this argument, and therefore I will proceed no farther with this
discussion. Besides, even granting that it were possible for any of them
to be seriously convinced that Christianity does not prohibit the Slave
Trade, I should still have no great encouragement to proceed, for,—it
may be prejudice, but I cannot persuade myself that they are so much
under the practical influence of religion, that if we should convince
their understandings, we should alter their conduct. [Sidenote: Other
Considerations which enforce the necessity of abolition.] After having
thus stated the various grounds on which our opponents argued against
the abolition of the Slave Trade, it still however remains for me to
mention two or three additional considerations. For want of time I shall
not dwell long on them. But let me recommend them to your most serious
reflection, for they are of unspeakable importance. It is not using too
strong language to affirm, that if all the arguments which have been
hitherto adduced in support of the abolition of the Slave Trade, were
weak and unsatisfactory, the measure is urged on us by these
considerations alone, with such commanding force, that it would deserve
the name of infatuation not to agree to it, and that on grounds not
merely of abstract right and duty, but of regard for the well-being of
our West Indian Colonies themselves, and for the prosperity of the
British Empire.
[Sidenote: Insurrections:—danger of.]
The first consideration which I shall mention is that of a danger of
unspeakable amount, to which at length, though surely somewhat too late,
even those who have been most blinded by prejudice begin to open their
eyes. It seems at last to be discovered, that Negroes are men; that as
men, they are subject to human passions; that they can feel when they
are injured; that they can conceive, and meditate, and mature; can
combine and concert, and at length proceed to execute with vigour what
they have planned with policy. Such being the lesson which the Island of
St. Domingo has taught to those most unwilling to receive it; the
immense disproportion between the Blacks and Whites in our islands,
perhaps ten or even fifteen to one, is a subject of most just and
serious dread, and the danger is extremely aggravated, by the difference
between the two descriptions being so plain and palpable, that the more
numerous body is continually reminded of its own force. What but
insanity would go on every year augmenting a disproportion already so
great!
But it is highly important also to consider, that the continuance of the
Slave Trade not only aggravates the danger of the West Indian
settlements, by increasing the disproportion between Blacks and Whites,
but still more by introducing that very description of persons which has
been acknowledged by the most approved West Indian writers to be most
prone to insurrections. Here let us refer again to the historian of
Jamaica. “The truth is,” says he, “that ever since the introduction of
Africans into the West Indies, insurrections have occurred in every one
of the colonies, British as well as foreign, at times.”[49] Again, “The
vulgar opinion in England confounds all the Blacks in one class, and
supposes them equally prompt for rebellion; an opinion that is grossly
erroneous. The Negroes who have been chief actors in the seditions and
mutinies which at different times have broken out here, were the
imported Africans.”[50] Again; “If insurrections should happen oftener
in Jamaica than in the smaller islands, it would not be at all
surprising; since it has generally contained more Negroes than all the
windward British islands taken together: its importations in some years
have been very great:
In 1764 imported, 10,223
And from January 1765 to July 1766, a year and a half, 16,760
“So large a multitude as 27,000 introduced in the space of two years and
a half, furnishes a very sufficient reason, if there was no other, to
account for plots and mutinies.”[51] Let it be remembered, that since
Mr. Long’s book was published, in 1774, there have been retained
probably above 200,000 Negroes; and add to these the importations which
have subsequently taken place in our other islands, and remember, that,
as even Negroes can confederate, and the Slaves in the several islands
might mutually assist each other, all the islands are interested; that
fresh accessions of Negroes should not be permitted in any one: then
estimate if you can the sum of the danger which has been too long
suffered to accumulate without restraint, and which is every year still
increasing.
Even at the very moment in which I am writing, I hear rumours of an
insurrection in one of our smaller colonies, Grenada; and though I
cannot trace the report to any authentic source, yet it is impossible to
deny that it is highly probable. The importations into this island have
been of late years larger, considering its size, than into most of our
other islands; thence the report derives additional probability. But to
all the foregoing considerations, add that new aggravation of the
dangers of our West Indian colonies, that, almost within the visible
horizon of our largest island, the Negroes have been taught but too
intelligibly the fatal secret of their own strength. Here also the
Planters may learn, were it not before abundantly clear, how ardent is
the Negroes’ love of liberty, and what a price they are willing to pay
for it. The season is critical—not a moment is to be lost. The British
Legislature should consider the present as a happy interval, in which,
perhaps, an opportunity is yet providentially afforded them, of averting
the gathering storm. If they pause, it will be too late.
Let it not be said, that the West Indians themselves can best judge of
the reality of the danger, and that they do not greatly regard it. It
might, indeed, have been expected, that the necessity of compulsion
would here be superseded by every man’s concern for his own interest and
safety. But that takes place in this case, which often happens where
danger is apprehended to the whole community, from practices in which
men engage for their own individual advantage. Each particular instance
of this practice seems to add but little to the amount of the general
danger, or but little in proportion to the advantage which the
individual expects to derive from it. The danger besides is uncertain,
however probable; and he shares it in common with the whole community.
The benefit he conceives certain, and the gain is all his own. Is not
this then precisely the state of circumstances in which the legislature
should interfere as the general guardian of the whole community, and
prevent the interest and happiness of all from being endangered by
individual avarice, obstinacy, or foolhardiness. But it would not be
wonderful if the resident West Indians themselves were not conscious on
what hollow ground they stand. It is nothing new that they who are most
exposed to a great danger are the least aware of it; that, like the
short-sighted inhabitants of Puzzoli, or Terra del Gréco, they alone are
insensible to the approaching lava which is about to desolate their
dwellings. It happens in this, as in other instances, familiarity with
the danger naturally generates insensibility to it, and the very persons
who are most exposed to its evils, are most blind to its reality and
magnitude. But the legislature, as a provident guardian of the whole
community, should exercise its watchful superintendence, and take that
step which is the natural preliminary to all radical reform, and to all
effectual measures for the future safety of the islands. But, to state
the truth, it is not merely by familiarity with the great danger which
we have been describing, that the resident colonists are rendered
insensible to it. This insensibility results in no small degree from the
extreme degradation of the Negro race. The resident White is so
accustomed to regard them as of an inferior species, that he is no more
apprehensive lest they should learn the fatal secret of their own
strength, and combine for their own deliverance, than lest such a
combination should take place among the horses or cattle, or any other
inferior animals, which may therefore, without danger, be suffered to
increase their numbers to any amount.[52] Is it possible to see men thus
lulled into a fatal insensibility to such a great and obvious danger,
without recognizing once more that righteous ordination of the Almighty,
by which, when human laws are inactive, he provides natural punishment
of our infringement on the rights and happiness of our fellow creatures.
But the dangers to our great island of Jamaica, arising out of its
proximity to St. Domingo, are not yet exhausted. Contemplate the state
of St. Domingo. See how it is placed; almost in contact with Jamaica.
Consider its size, and its vast Black population. And since recent
events have so clearly proved that Negroes can reason, and feel and act
like ourselves; we may form no unjust judgment of the probable
sentiments and emotions of these free Negroes, by imagining what in
similar circumstances would be our own.
Take then the Negroes of St. Domingo, justly jealous of the Europeans,
and resolved carefully to watch over and defend those newly-acquired
liberties which they have so dearly purchased. They hear of cargoes of
their wretched countrymen continually torn from their native land, and
doomed for life to a state of vassalage. They see that, all around them,
their African countrymen are still detained in that same state of bitter
bondage from which they have themselves so lately emerged. They know
that the Colonists in all the islands regard them with mixed emotions of
hatred and fear, and would rejoice in being able again to rivet on their
chains. Do they not see, in the present degraded state of their
brethren, and remember in their own, that there is a grand fundamental
ground of distinction between Blacks and Whites, a radical separation
and even opposition of interests; a real, enduring principle of
hostility?
May they not reasonably be supposed to think that they owe it alike to
their honour and their security to vindicate the rights of their sable
countrymen? May they not apprehend, that if they do not, while they can,
assist their brethren in the neighbouring colonies to assert their
freedom, and drive out their taskmasters, the white inhabitants of the
other islands will not only preserve their empire over the Blacks
already subject to them, but be continually plotting for the destruction
of freedom in St. Domingo? May they not justly fear lest the European
Powers, when their present differences shall be made up, should
hereafter combine their efforts to restore, even in St. Domingo itself,
the yoke of slavery?
Such, it is not unnatural to suppose, will be the reasonings and
sensations of the St. Domingo Negroes. But experience has in vain
afforded us proofs of the watchfulness, address, and versatility of our
indefatigable enemy, if we do not suppose it possible that Bonaparte, by
his agents, will reinforce those natural surmises; that by suggesting,
through his emissaries, to the Negroes of St. Domingo, the dangers to
which they are exposed, and the means of averting them, he will
endeavour to stimulate them to invade Jamaica, and to stir up in all our
islands insurrection and revolt. Those whom he has in vain attempted to
make the victims of his rapacity, he will thus render the instruments of
his revenge.
Let any one read the “Crisis of our Sugar Colonies” with seriousness,
and he will acknowledge the amount, the variety, the probability, of the
dangers to which our West Indian settlements are exposed. Their reality
as well as their magnitude must equally be confessed by every man whose
judgment is not totally obscured by interest, or whose discernment is
not altogether blinded by familiarity with the objects which he views.
[Sidenote: Our population drained.]
The next of the important topics to which I lately alluded is one on
which, from prudential motives, I will press lightly; but which I must
commend to the most serious attention of my readers, not merely from
considerations of humanity, but even of self-interest. The West Indies
have long been regarded as the grave of our soldiers and seamen, but
never surely with so much reason as of late years. For a new disease has
broken out, so terribly wasteful in its effects, and so little subject
hitherto to the controul of medicine, as to furnish too just cause for
fearing lest there should be such a constant drain of the population of
the mother country, as from the numbers consumed on the one hand,
perhaps even still more on the other, from the dangerous effects on our
naval and military service (I trust I shall be understood, though, from
motives of caution, I rather hint than express my meaning) to render the
protection of our transatlantic colonies incompatible with our internal
security. This is a topic on which I will not press; but in proportion
as I abstain from the alarming discussion, lest I should in any degree
aggravate one of the evils which I apprehend, let it be deeply and
seriously weighed by every considerate mind. Even independently of
interest, shall not the voice of humanity be heard? Is it nothing to
send the brave defenders of our country, and the flower of our youth, to
a pestilential climate, where they fall not in the field of battle, not
contending with the enemies of their country, but where they perish
unknown, and therefore ingloriously, often even falling the victims of
their own fears, from beholding such multitudes around them continually
swept away.[53]
But that which I must press upon you is, that all these sufferers, or at
least an immense majority of them, are the victims of the Slave Trade.
For it is this pernicious traffic, which by the double operation of
continually increasing the disproportion between the Blacks and Whites
on the one hand, and of obstructing on the other those salutary reforms
which would change by degrees this depraved, degraded mass into a happy
peasantry; makes you shrink back with terror from defending the islands
by their own internal resources, though we cannot but acknowledge that
they would hereby be rendered utterly invincible by any European force
which the great nation, or any others of our enemies, might bring
against them.[54] And here a fresh prospect of misery opens to our view:
here come in a new set of sufferers from the Slave Trade, not the less
to be attended to, because, as yet at least, they do not themselves
trace the bitter stream from which their cup is filled, to its original
source; the numerous train of widows and orphans and relatives, whose
nearest connections have fallen the victims of the diseases of the
western world. I am persuaded, that if the full effect of the Slave
Trade in this relation were generally known, the general feelings of the
nation, more powerfully, alas! excited for our own subjects than for the
unhappy Africans, would have produced throughout the British Isles one
universal cry of indignation against this arch enemy of the happiness of
mankind. Here is another of those instances, several of which in the
course of this investigation we have had occasion to remark, wherein,
through the righteous retribution of Heaven, wickedness and cruelty are
not allowed, even in this world, to go unpunished; by which the
irreligious and unfeeling are taught to respect the happiness of others,
if from no higher motive, yet from regard to the preservation of their
own.
[Sidenote: Summary view of the miseries produced by the Slave Trade.]
And now surely you must be prepared to admit without hesitation, and in
its full extent, the declaration made by Mr. Pitt in the House of
Commons, that the Slave Trade was the greatest practical evil that ever
had afflicted the human race. Such indeed it would be found, had we but
leisure to take the real weight of all the various evils which it
includes; and surely it might well become us to enter into this
examination. But it would almost exceed the powers of calculation, after
having traced the Slave Trade into all its various forms of suffering,
to estimate the amount of them all.
Let us, however, spend a few moments in adding up the great totals of
which it consists, that we may be the less likely to deceive ourselves,
as in such cases men are apt to do, by underrating the evils of which we
are the cause, and consequently the amount of guilt with which we are
chargeable.
To begin with Africa. If we would form a fair calculation of the
aggregate sum of misery caused by the Slave Trade, we must remember that
it is by no means to be estimated by the numbers which we actually carry
away into slavery: Nor yet by adding to them all the wretched relatives,
families, and connections who are left behind: Nor yet by superadding
the devastation and misery which, to those who may not actually be
caught and carried off, may arise from all the several predatory
expeditions occasioned by the Slave Trade, either directly or in
retaliation of former aggressions originating from the same cause: Nor
still by adding the destruction and desolation produced by national wars
(for of these the Slave Trade is often the origin), with pestilence and
famine, and all the various forms of misery which follow war in its
train: Nor even yet by subjoining the wretchedness of those, with all
their families and friends, who are the victims of injustice and
treachery, masking themselves under the forms of law, or availing
themselves of the native superstitions.